Queens, Barefeet, and Charcoal Sticks
by Disenchanted Cynic
Summary: Sequel to Gold Glitter and Purple Rimmel. Sakura's sophomore year consists of patching her life together, not wearing shoes, and ignoring Sasuke Uchiha. Of course, because life is never easy, Sasuke refuses to stay ignored...


**Queens, Barefeet, and Charcoal Sticks**

**-o-**

_**for Rose**_

* * *

I walked across the prickly, green grass on campus outside Juicy Cafe and Uchiha Hall (and trying my best to disregard the stupid name of the stupid building, which was unfortunately a surprisingly hard feat; our school must know how smart kids often tend to lack common sense and a halfway descent sense of direction, but if you ask me, they went a little overboard on making the name plaques on the building so obnoxiously big and shiny golden that it was impossible to not be blinded by them when the sun was up.)

On my way to the band hall and swinging my clarinet case by its handle and my music books, I ignored a group of overly-made-up freshmen girls shooting me various appalled, dirty looks. Bitches. If I wanna freaking wear shorts I've had since high school, a green Owls sweatshirt, and no shoes, I freaking will. Freaks. Geez, I hope I wasn't like that last year when I was that old.

But now I am a sexy sophomore at this lovely little brainiac university with its beastly owl mascot and pwnsome library. And I get to take advanced bio lab!

Well, I guess I could have two broken legs and be mauled by dogs, and this year would still be better than my freshman year. But things have changed. I'm not the same mopey weakling anymore; I'm way smarter. Hell, I swore off guys.

Anyway, I finally reached the amazingly comforting, familiar brick building of the band hall and jerked open the one door on the south side that won't automatically lock people out my accident. I padded down the tile hallway, still barefoot and showing off my Emerald City green toe-nail polish, waved a cheery hello to some senior trombone friends who've known me long enough to not have to do a double take when they saw weird, lil' old me, and slipped through gray, sound-proof double doors.

I would never have been this confident in my own skin last year, strutting around socially and casually checking the symphonic band calendar for the week on a bulletin board. Last year I would've frozen stiff as a board, leaving Ino to come to my rescue and the rest of my clarinet family to make excuses for me. I was so weak then.

In the band hall, I skipped over to my chair (4th one, cheyeah!) and chirped a hello to Neji in 5th chair beside me. Ha ha, can't stop saying that. Me 4th chair. Neji 5th chair. 4th, 5th. Sakura better. Neji not. Gotta rub it in, especially because I'm only a sophomore and old Kakashi judged me as one chair's worth a better clarinet player. Anywho...

I stuck the absurdly large amount of pieces together to build my far-too collapsible for its own good instrument and stuck a size 3 1/2 reed in my mouth like a cigarette to soften while I waited Kakashi out. Seriously. You know anything about the clarinet? WELL WIKIPEDIA IT! We have 5 freaking pieces to put together, not including ligature and reed! Honestly, brass just slaps on their mouthpieces and they're ready for action.

But that's just why we're that much sexier than them.

I tried to chat it up with Neji (who is, by the way, the most taciturn person... EVER...) for a few minutes until our (just _soooo_-cough-sarcasm-cough- punctual) band director got his ass out of his office and came to save me. Because, of course, ever since before this August and summer band camp when I'd made it into the university's highest band, I'd been feeling cold, brown eyes lodging splinters into my back and agonisingly twisting them into my spine that I could never pull them out and forget their pain. The animosity that I could feel rolling off in dark waves that practically manifested like her wild, brunette hair, as Tenten sat in the 3rd chair on my left with a growl and a muttered 'bitch' of acknowledgement, and lets just say we all know she wasn't talking to Neji.

That's what else had changed.

* * *

**Well, people, here's the sequel to Gold Glitter And Purple Rimmel. The chapters are going to be short like this because, seriously, mates, I probably should've quit Fanfiction by now, I'm so busy with my own biology and clarinet and university. **

**But let's not talk about that now...**

**The sequel's main purpose will be to explain the prequel and add amazingness to the story. Basically this here is a must read for all you people who finished reading the first story and the first thought that came to mind was "What that hell? _What?_" So yay, explanation sequels!**

**Here, I shall explain Tenten. Some were confused with my choice of Sasuke's latest evil girlfriend thwarting Sakura's just outstanding Sasuke love to debut on Fanfiction. Some approved. My reasons were simple.**

**- Seriously, people, the Karin or Ino as Sasuke's bitchy girlfriend is _so_ overused. Don't even deny that.**

**- I like writing Ino more when she's Sakura's friend instead of rival.**

**- Karin sucks so much I don't even like typing her name. Rachel calls her "Bitch-who-must-not-be-named"**

**-Tenten is a 'fresh' choice**

**-I wanted to create a new conflict there: the reader isn't supposed to hate Tenten; she's not a bitch. You sympathise with her and feel the tear from the fact that she and Sakura are both nice girls who have been hurt, without it being either of their faults. **

**Well, I'll leave you guys with that. Since this is so absurdly short (and fun) I think I'll be good with the updating.**

**Love you all! Peace out and much love.**


End file.
